The two types of development
Whatever you try to improve on yourself, the graph will look like a curve. Imagine you run daily and track your speed at the end of a 10km run. I guess that curve will look like in the following picture:
Here the improvements work on a logarithmic scale. The better you become, the harder and harder it will be to improve. Elite athletes make an extraordinary effort to win extra seconds. Athletes who are at the beginning of the road can earn those seconds with just a little workout.
Logarithmic growth is the first type of development. This is where you have a lot of progress in the beginning, but the continuation becomes more and more difficult.
Now imagine a different graph. This time just build a new website that adds constant content and still gathers subscribers. The graph will look like this, different from the first:
Exponential development
This is an exponential growth, the second type of growth of the two that I will present below. Traffic to a website is often exponential because the more people read and access the website, the more opportunities to spread the website.
I have noticed that many things tend to develop either logarithmically or exponentially. However, linear progress is the most expected of people. We tend to think that things are moving in the same direction, at the same speed as in the past. This thinking and this type of expectation brings us some mistakes in the way we set our goals and how we act in this direction.
Mistakes in logarithmic development
The first mistake is to assume that the development is linear, when in fact it can be algorithmic. This type of development occurs in the following cases:
Athletic performances;
Increase or weight loss;
Learning a new language;
Productivity;
Specializing in something.
Considering that this development is a linear one can affect the confidence you have in your long term. As a result, it is much easier to reach certain levels if the difficulty is not deliberate and does not "destroy" the comfortable pace you are accustomed to.
Logarithmic growth also means you can easily quit. Since it is so steep at first (see the first graph), there may be many obstacles that make you roll back at the start. Losing weight quickly is much more desirable than having patience with this whole process, but at the same time you risk losing weight again after the process has ceased.
Errors of logarithmic development are very common, but the same is true of exponential development.
Mistakes in exponential development
As with the logarithmic one, people believe that development is linear, when it can actually be exponential. Here are some examples:
Technological improvement;
Developing the business;
Health;
Benefits of talent / careers.
Unlike logarithmic curves, almost nothing is consistently exponential. The vast majority of developments are exponential only for a particular unit of measure, while the rest are logarithmic.
No business gets close to infinite, even if it has an exponential development. Eventually, the market becomes saturated or competition stabilizes development. However, many types of business with exponential growth may persist for a long time.
Exponential curves are somewhat more rare than logarithmic ones, however mistakes in this case seem to be much more expensive. To believe that there is a linear increase when in fact it is exponential makes many people give up, much more than your credentials.
The exponential development areas of life are full of people who fail. People who make linear assessments and who give up just before the exponential growth takes place.
Is your exponential or logarithmic development?
Both types of mistakes lead to the failure of recognizing a development, be it exponential or logarithmic, and at the same time you will notice that there are some costs. It is not always very clear what kind of development you have, but given the characteristics of the field in which you work, you can come to a conclusion.
The easiest way you can find out what kind of development you have is to look at the progress in the field. More specifically, it looks at the way in which development took place. Have you developed gradually, gradually or have you had a sudden increase?
In those areas where development is logarithmic, two types of thinking are important. At first be focused on strong developments and what is happening just now, and in the long run be focused on constancy. In those areas where development is exponential, you need to focus on endurance and resilience, especially when they are critical.